The Center of the Cyclone: An Autobiography of Inner Space is a 1972 book by John C. Lilly published by the Julian Press.

The book explores the question of consciousness and the inner world of the mind, refracted through the experience of Lilly himself in the 1960s using the drug LSD and, particularly, flotation tanks and isolation.

[1] The book also recounted Lilly's interactions with other explorers of consciousness such as Oscar Ichazo in Chile whose work was based in part on that of Gurdijeff.

Lilly adapted Ichazo's concepts of a range of different levels of experience, using pre-existing concepts such as satori or samadhi, to create a composite framework of consciousness ranging on the one hand from the death of the ego and fusion with the Universal Mind to a state of the 'quintessence of evil' and 'deepest hell imaginable' on the other hand.

"[3] In this context, Lilly draws a distinction between the limitless province of the mind and the realm of the body, in which there are limits that cannot be transcended.